Below is the content of a speech by John Payton, President  and Director-Council of NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, at the 22nd National Equal Justice Award Dinner held in Manhattan, New York on November 6, 2008.

John Payton, President and Director-Council of NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund

Good evening. And this is a really good evening. This week, this election, have been historic and momentous. There is a feeling of excitement that is unique in my lifetime – I think in all of our lifetimes. I think of my father, who died long before this was anything more than an aspiration.        In fact, many of the people who marched and protested and picketed; who went to jail, who were beaten, and, yes, who died in this cause, did not fully envision this day either. The significance of this election is not the narrow point that a Black man was elected President, but the larger point that a Black man was elected President by all of the people to be president of all of the people.

LDF played an important, even pivotal, role in moving the country to this point. LDF’s brilliantly designed and executed legal strategy to confront legally sanctioned racial segregation created new possibilities for equal justice and inclusive democracy in the United States.        Brown v. Board of Education was a transformative event for the entire nation; leading us directly into the Civil Rights Movement and its landmark legislation, the 1964 Civil Rights Act; the 1965 Voting Rights Act; the 1968 Fair Housing Act and many landmark decisions interpreting those laws and the reach of the Constitution.

Right up to tonight.

But we have further to go. Amendments to the Constitution and new laws did not magically correct all of our fundamental problems. Even at this moment of excitement and promise, we are experiencing an economic calamity that is also unique in my lifetime. And, as I think we all know, issues of racial justice and equality are often compromised in such stressful economic times.

Extraordinary promise at the same time as extraordinary challenge.

One need only look at the state of public schools in our inner cities to see the enormity of today’s challenges. Many of these schools fail more often than they succeed in providing their students with the skills necessary to participate in our society. Fewer than half of the African American students who attend graduate; resulting in a catastrophic failure which will ultimately push our nation toward a caste system fundamentally at odds with democratic principles.

There are, of course, other disturbing failures – from a criminal justice system that is still infected by racism, to an election process which, as we are regularly reminded, has not yet eradicated efforts to suppress and intimidate African American and other minority voters, to the devastating effects of the financial meltdown on African American homeownership and wealth.

So, once again, we need transformative change. That was LDF’s goal when we started, and it is our goal today. Through periods of promise and retrenchment alike, LDF aggressively confronts fundamental problems in our society – problems that if left unchallenged, will undermine the health and viability of our democracy.

Don’t misunderstand me here. The progress — both symbolic and real – of the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States is stunning to contemplate. We can hear our forbearers celebrating. We can see Thurgood smiling. We have watched millions of Americans weigh the needs of the nation’s present and future and cast their ballot for the person they considered the best able to lead America through perilous times.

But we also take seriously the admonition of Charles Houston, the architect of Brown, which he delivered right after the first victory on the road to Brown: “Don’t Shout Too Soon.” And it is too soon. Right in front of us are the fundamental challenges to racial justice and equality I just mentioned.  Challenges to the very health and vitality of our democracy. Now we must recommit ourselves and the country to the hard work posed by those challenges.

By itself the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States cannot change the trajectory of the catastrophic rate of failure of America’s predominantly black and Hispanic public schools. It will not change the dire economic realities confronting millions of ordinary Americans ensnared in the mortgage crisis. It will not stop further deterioration in our cities.

But we are at the beginning of a long national dialogue over the meaning of this election for issues of racial justice. You have heard the questions. Does this election reflect that we are in some ways a post-racial society? Or a less racist society? Does it create new opportunities for racial justice? Does this have significance beyond the national election? Does Senator Obama’s election change how we should view anti-black racism and other forms of bigotry in the United States?

LDF is not only fully engaged in the issues of racial justice and the need for transformation in our society, but we have also decided that now is the time to add our voice to the national dialogue.

In the next days we will launch our own blog, TheDefendersOnline.com. These issues are too pressing to be left to the mainstream media. Our blog will mark the beginning of our own sustained consideration of these and many other questions and answers about the issues America has faced and now faces. I hope you will all visit us. Send us your comments. Be part of our community. The DefendersOnline.com.

This is my first year as President and Director-Counsel of the Legal Defense Fund and I am deeply honored to be called upon to lead this spectacular organization in these challenging times.  This is also my first National Equal Justice Award Dinner and I am equally pleased that we are honoring two exceptional corporate leaders – Ronald Williams, the Chairman and CEO of Aetna and Goldman Sachs and its Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein. In these very stressful times, it really matters that these companies, and their leaders, are committed to helping to make this a more just society.

These are momentous times. For both their challenge and their promise. It is a great time to be at LDF, and we are grateful for all of our supporters. So, welcome to what I think will be a wonderful and memorable dinner.